I work in IT, and user error will happen no matter what system you have, even one as simple as touch the candidate you want to vote for. That said, it's part of why I don't think electronic voting machines are a good idea.

I know the saying is 'never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence', but when politics are involved I think it's the other way around. This kind of problem should NEVER be allowed to happen, at all.

Just goes to show that electronic voting machines are going to be the beginning of the end of our democracy. How can anyone in this country feel good about an election anymore, especially when the outcome is so close like it has been the last 8 years? Whoever designed these voting machines should be fired and sued. This is absolutely ridiculous.

>> ^lucky760:
I don't get it. The electronic voting machines we use around here actually print your selections onto paper then asks you to verify what's on the paper is correct. Then that paper is what is tabulated later.
Why do they feel the need to use machines where votes are saved digitally and can be easily tampered with?


So that they can easily tamper with them.

I don't get it. The electronic voting machines we use around here actually print your selections onto paper then asks you to verify what's on the paper is correct. Then that paper is what is tabulated later.

Why do they feel the need to use machines where votes are saved digitally and can be easily tampered with?

>> ^thinker247:
George W. Bush had more votes than this guy?


he probably didnt. Electronic votes can be and were flipped.

I'm so torn on this one. It was *horrible (to me), but at the same time, the more attention that focuses on just how poorly done the electronic voting machines are implemented, the better.

I haven't watched this video (I will), but I'm guessing this video is along the same lines:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Hacking-Democracy

It concentrates on the electronic voting machines used 2004 and how they were hacked. This is A FACT, one of the machines was caught counting backwards for Kerry. In this documentary they show how they hacked it, and how they fought to get the true votes.
What shocks me is that there hasn't been a huge media scandal. Someone bought a lot of votes. In the US of A. No biggie?

Well as those two who ran for president so nicely put it:
"The world watches our great democracy function" -George W Bush
"It's that magic moment when the greatest democracy on the face of the planet gets to show the world how we work." -John Kerry

So the voice of the people in the supposed greatest democracy isn't really that important?

>> ^NetRunner:

I didn't realize they had a state-by-state prediction market.
If someone wanted to gamble on this election (and I'm getting sorely tempted to), I'd say buy stock in Virginia -- Obama is more likely to win that than Nevada, IMO.
====================================================
I'd say buy stock in Diebold or ES&S ftw!:

http://www.videosift.com/video/From-The-Programmers-Mouth-How-The-2000-Election-Was-Fixed

http://www.videosift.com/video/The-architect-of-the-Sarasota-FL-13-stolen-election

http://www.videosift.com/video/Hacking-Democracy

http://www.videosift.com/video/Dan-Rather-Reports-Trouble-with-Touchscreens

http://www.videosift.com/video/Sarasota-Elections-2006

http://www.videosift.com/video/Invisible-Ballots-A-Temptation-for-Electronic-Voting-Fraud

http://www.videosift.com/video/Broken-Government-Electronic-Voting-Machines

http://www.videosift.com/video/How-Fox-News-Killed-John-Kerry-in-2004

http://www.videosift.com/video/Uncounted-The-New-Math-of-American-Elections

http://www.videosift.com/video/PBS-NOW-Republicans-illegal-use-of-Voter-Caging-in-2004

http://www.videosift.com/video/Fox-News-Rigged-Focus-Groups

http://www.videosift.com/video/Hack-a-US-Election-in-3-E-Z-steps-with-your-friend-Diebold

http://www.videosift.com/video/New-Hampshire-Primary-Sham-Chain-of-Custody

http://www.videosift.com/video/Yet-another-documentary-showing-stolen-broken-elections

http://www.videosift.com/video/Votergate

http://www.videosift.com/video/E-Voting-Machine-Maker-Admits-Miscounts

http://www.videosift.com/video/Stealing-America-Vote-by-Vote

http://www.videosift.com/video/Voting-Machine-Being-Compromised-by-UCSBs-Security-Group

... there was also an amazing newscast report video that showed the new electronic voting machines in California were decertified by some officials. This video has been stripped off of youtube several months and I haven't been able to find it since.

I did find this interesting article about a voting fraud investigator that found out "too much"...
http://www.bradblog.com/Docs/ClintCurtis_RayLemme_Hust0906.pdf

>> ^dgandhi:
>> ^charliem:
Go back to paper ballots you fucking retards.
I'm going to have to disagree with this. The problem is not electronic voting, it's the implementation.


True, BUT until there is a nearly foolproof implementation that has the bugs worked out of its system and has been through an open peer review (including the ENTIRE source code down to the BIOS level), go back to paper ballots. It's a lot harder to manipulate than electronics.

>> ^charliem:
Go back to paper ballots you fucking retards.

I'm going to have to disagree with this. The problem is not electronic voting, it's the implementation.

When the army wants a whistle, they submit a 12 page spec with technical drawings, and specifications on materials used etc, if the manufacturer fails to deliver exactly what is in the spec they are in breach of contract with the government and will never get another contract again.

When the gov hands out "kinda like this" corporate welfare funding like they did to diebold, then you get this kind of crap. The government knows how to get what they want at a good price, that was just not the point of the "help america vote act".

Let me be blunt. I could set up a sourceforge project to develop the software/hardware spec for an e-voting system, using existing free software, I could get help from volunteers, and we could have a secure, working system in a couple of months.

In fact anybody worth their salt at programming/crypto could have a proof of concept mocked up in python, or bash shell script by tomorrow.

These people failed for one of three reasons:

1) they are flagrantly incompetent. (their ATM products suggest otherwise)
2) they didn't even try. (seems plausible, just take free money and run)
3) they intentionally made the system weak to allow fraud. (unfortunately also plausible)

I find it interesting that Hillary went hardcore with her Negative Campaigning before these Primaries. Suddenly She's winning again, does this mean she will step up the negativity?

Then again with Electronic voting could this whole thing be a sham? Obama not only sells out every Arena he speaks in, his overflow crowds (the people who can't get into his events and prefer to wait outside) are consistently larger then the crowds Hillary attracts. His web traffic is a billion times busier then hers, he is raising more money??? Do American actually want to Continue the Bush/Clinton Dynasty?

... I got nothing left in me...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjunhSO3JI0

Tags for this video have been changed from 'diebold, leaks, election, parody, overlords, sham, electronic, voting' to 'diebold, leaks, election, parody, overlords, sham, electronic, voting, onion' - edited by Zifnab

It's not just Diebold.. there are other companies like ES&S that sell mass quantities of electronic voting machines where their security is lacking. I'm glad to see this discussed on mainstream tv, even if it is just a mediocre comedic fanfare show. Oh btw Maher, you're a conspiracy theorist now and don't worry.. it's not a bad thing, because conspiracies do exist... people do conspire against one another.. to think otherwise would mean you're crazy.

they have a great system in venezuela. you place your vote electronically and it prints out a receipt that you check and put in a box. obviously all the electronic votes are counted and a big percentage of the paper ones to verify that the electronic one makes sense.

All hail the Resident of the United States! Sifted some time ago was an expose on Diebold and electronic voting in general. They put some handy little virus on the pc cards the put in the machines, did a test vote and recorded the records. It made one of the participating election workers cry because she realized all her work was for naught.